In laundry processing plants, processing units such as ironing and folding machines for clothing are used, into which the flat articles of clothing must be introduced in a spread out condition on a mobile conveyor belt. In the prior art apparatuses are known for loading flat articles of clothing into such laundy processing units.
Patent EP-A-0554205 describes one of such loading apparatuses, including a frame with an entrance opposite one reception end of a conveyor belt and one or more loading posts located in front of said entrance. Each loading post is controlled and served by an operator, and includes a first pair of clamps in which said operator can catch the ends of a flat article of clothing, and lifting means adapted to move said first pair of clamps, with the article of clothing hanging down, to a higher position in which the first pair of clamps transfers the ends of the flat article of clothing to a second pair of clamps associated with spreading out means mounted on the frame. Said spreading out means include a pair of carriages running on respective guide rails extending above and next to the reception end of the conveyor belt transverse to the transport direction thereof. Each clamp in said second pair of clamps is mounted on one respective carriage of said pair of carriages, and driving means are configured and arranged to move each carriage independently, separating them from one another, between positions in front of the loading post, where the transfer took place, and suitable positions with respect to the centre of the conveyor belt in order to spread out the flat article of clothing sufficiently. In this position, the flat article of clothing is held by the top ends thereof by the second pair of clamps and hangs down vertically. Blowing and suction means help to place one end of the flat article of clothing spread out over said reception end of the conveyor belt at the same time as the scond pair of clamps release the article. In the lifting means, the trajectory of the said movement of said first pair of clamps to a higher position is a tilted rectilinear trajectory, with a loading end positioned at a lower level and more external that the opposite transfer end. In other words, both clamps in the first pair of clamps simultaneously carry out translation movements along parallel trajectories from the loading position to the transfer position and subsequently translation movements in the opposite direction upon returning to the loading position.
The arrangement described in said patent EP-A-0554205, at the time, represented an advantage because the operators did not need to lift the flat articles of clothing to catch them directly in the second pair of clamps, but instead they catch them on the first pair of clamps and the lifting means produce the lift. However, this arrangement can be improved in terms, for example, of the implementation speed of the lifting means and the ergonomy of the loading posts.
JP-200232600 describe a cloth conveyor assembly capable of streching and conveying large clothers such as sheets and small clothes such as pillows cases and napkins. A front wall of a suction chamber is installed provided with vertically displaceable grips so that it can be moved between a use position wherein it projects form a front end of a hand-operating conveyor to a clothes feeding operation position and a storage position wherein it moves back to the inside of the front end of said hand operating conveyor. The reduction of volume obtained between these two positions only provides a longitudinal reduction but a height reduction is not obtained. This document does not disclose one of said two referred positions being apt to provide a transport mode of the apparatus, with a reduced global volume.